Sippin’ at the Cellar: Friday wine tastings at River City Cellars.

Das schmeckt gut! That’s German, Austria’s official language, for “that tastes good!” Every Friday, River City Cellars offers a free wine tasting from 5-7 p.m. and features five wines from across the world. Last Friday River City highlighted wines from Austria, a country with about 20,000 wineries. On average, Austria produces more whites (about 70 percent) than reds, but River City provided a delicious variety of both whites and reds to drinkers. Here are a few wines we tried:

Buchegger 2008 Gruner Veltliner “Gebling”: Gruner Veltliner, nicknamed by some as GruVe, is Austria’s national grape and makes some banging wine. The Gebling is a very sippable dry white wine. Pick it up for $21.99.

Fritsch 2008 Riesling: Rieslings are typically grown in the Niederösterreich region (wow, spell check is really not liking this post), or Lower Austria. Fritsch’s Riesling is dry, crisp and refreshing. Give it a sniff and you’ll smell some refreshing hints of pear. Pick it up for $14.99.

Zantho 2006 St. Laurent: This was a fruity – I could definitely taste some cherries – dry red wine. To me, this wine was very smooth and the cherry really piqued my tastebuds’ interest. Pick it up for $15.99.

Austria produces less than one percent of all the wine in the world – but the wine it does produce, or at least the wine we tried – is good! Stop by River City Cellars next Friday to try more wines from different regions. For a full list of Austrian wines we tried, with tasting notes, click here, or visit River City Cellar’s Web site at www.rivercitycellars.com. River City Cellars is located at 2931 West Cary St.

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